Vegan Featured Sauce

This is the first installment of Travels with Greg. Greg, the Owner of Lofty Pursuits has become obsessed with soda fountains, and has started his journey to find every good vintage and modern fountain he can get to and visit them. The first of these is the Desoto Pharmacy in Lake City, Florida.

Back in the day, soda fountains were full lunch counters found in Pharmacies in every town across the country. A pharmacy back then was like now, more than just drugs. In many places it was the dry goods store, the only restaurant and the only place to go out for desert.
The Desoto pharmacy is a grand example of this. It is divided about half and half into a soda fountain and a working pharmacy. While not at their original location, they did move their vintage Knight Fountainette, and marble soda fountain counter. These marble counters were standard in the 40's, and theirs is in wonderful condition. Soda fountains of the time tried to out do each other in the materials they built the counters and equipment out of. The Knight Fountain is clearly a later addition, but this counter is from a time where quality of materials mattered.

I had a very good milkshake, but their lunch offerings were worth the trip. I had a great Turkey Apple Mustard sandwich, and my wife Sarah had a great burger. It was clearly worth the trip. I liked how they used glassware to serve the shake like we do at Lofty Pursuits, and they have a nice collection of vintage photos documenting the history of this long lived pharmacy.
They have a face book page if you want to follow them, so next time you are over in Lake City, or just driving to I-75 or Jacksonville, stop in for lunch. Get the Turkey and Apple sandwich, trust me.

We love when people post photos of our creations. This photo was posted by JK, and is of our toffee and turvey sundae.
This sundae is made from Caramel Toffee Crunch ice cream with hot butter caramel topping and crushed heath bars with vanilla whipped cream.

Every time I pick up a bottle of our Ocheesee creamery milk, I think I'm about to star on the Iron Chef, and it's the secret ingredient.
As you probably know by now, we try to commit to as local food as we can get, and the milk and cream we use for our whipped cream and milk shakes are no exception. Our Dairy comes from Bluntstown, and is delivered on Fridays by the farmer himself.
Now I can hear you say, I get good milk at the supermarket, what makes this milk different? This milk is pasteurized at low temperature. Most commercial milks are brought almost to a boil for 30 seconds, and then quickly cooled off. This milk is brought up to 147 degrees and kept there for three hours. It takes longer, but provides the same food safety as the high temperature method, but without breaking down all the proteins that make a milk shake smooth and creamy. The milk is also not homogenized. Just look at that cream on the top of the bottle. The proteins and milk solids are left alone, and this makes a better milk shake. Their cream is made the same way, and it's the secret of our amazing whipped cream. Of course all this milk comes from grass fed local Jersey cows and they are known for their amazing cream and milk.
So come to Lofty, have a Milk Shake (it has this milk in it and this cream on top) or just a cup of coffee with cream, or a Sundae topped with whipped cream, and you will taste why we go the extra mile for this milk. At a soda fountain, the ice cream must be the best, but so must everything else.
See you at Lofty Pursuits. Open until 10pm every day but Sundae, on Sundae we're open until 8pm.
P.S. Our party room is now available for rental and group use. Have you next party or gathering at Lofty Pursuits.

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Where are we?

1355 Market Street #A11 in Tallahassee, FL.
We are right off the Thomasville Road exit of I-10. We are in Verandas on Market Street facing Timberlane Road, directly across Timeberlane Road from our old location.

Hours:Brunch
7AM to 2PM every day.Ice Cream
Noon to 10PM Monday to Friday
10AM to 10Pm Saturday
10AM to 9PM Sunday(we have a limited ice cream menu before ice cream hours, but you can always get ice cream on your waffles.)

“One of the top 10 things to do in Tallahassee.”-­ Tallahassee Magazine

“When ... researching the history of the American soda fountain ... all roads led to Gregory Cohen [owner of Lofty Pursuits], probably the country’s leading expert on the institution.”-­ New York Times

Lofty Pursuits is a jaw-dropping dessert experience. - Miami New Times

Fun things at Lofty Pursuits

Fun things on display at Lofty Pursuits.

There is a lot of history on display at Lofty Pursuits. Look around at our vintage toys. We have a yo­yo museum and a collection of vintage yo­yo award patches and trophies. You can also find our original Frisbie pie tin. This returnable pie tin is what was tossed around and later became the throwing disc we all know. Also make sure you look at our display of Victorian candy making machines and molds. Check out the Haiku vending machine, poetry for a quarter. Also check out our non­pay phone. It's an original 1920's payphone that has been rewired to play recordings and let kids experience a rotary phone. There are recordings for all sorts of famous phone numbers. Try calling Jenny, James Bond or Alfred Hitchcock.